Guidance for Scribes
This article is an evolving style sheet to help guide contributions to the wiki. While we're developing it, please join the conversation on the talk page. For suggestions on what to work on and wiki tutorials, check out the Wiki Portal. __TOC__ Mission Our goal is to create and maintain an accurate, up-to-date and easy-to-use guide for players of HabitRPG. Style Tone Informative and semi-professional. In practice, this means opening all articles with clear-cut and concise definitions of the topic in question, followed by a well-organized and thorough rundown of the topic in detail. Stick with third person only in the openings, using words like "player" and "user" rather than "you." Once you get into the meat of an article, it should be fine to use second person, as most articles will have instructions for users of the site to follow. Never use first person under any circumstance. Article length Keeping the tone in mind, the article should be informative. The article should be straight to the point and should be as long as need be (especially for broader topics). However, do not go on a tangent and add fluff. Shorter articles are generally more accessible and usable than really long ones. Referencing related pages, however, is recommended and helpful for users in general. Always write the best that you can on all of your contributions. Formatting Text Formatting of text can include bold or italic text. These should be used sparingly. Text with too much formatting is distracting and decreases readability. When it comes to text decoration (overline, underline, etc.), we try to avoid these at all costs. Usual formatting of text does not need strikethrough, and underlined text can easily be confused with hyperlinks. Margins and Padding Margins and Padding are names for space around an element, be it text, image, table, etc. As a wiki editor, you usually do not have to worry about this. When you get further into it, this can be handled via CSS and the style attribute. You can read up on the use here: margins and padding. Grammar On this wiki, we follow standard English grammar rules. This includes (but is not limited to) spacing, punctuation and capitalization. Spacing is set to one space between sentences. Abbreviations should be followed by periods (for example, e.g. and i.e.). Entries should be made in sentences, not note form, unless entering data in a list or table. We also use standard English capitalization. This has two main cases: # At the beginning of sentences # With certain nouns (usually proper nouns, or HabitRPG terms such as "Market") and some adjectives. (If you need more information, please see Wikipedia.) Any extra capitalization could decrease readability, especially writing in all caps; writing in all caps is considered to be the equivalent of yelling on the Internet, and as such it is against the proper tone of this Wiki. Overall, this leads to a worse experience for the reader. If you need to emphasize something, you should use the bolding and italicizing features of the wiki (but make sure you aren't using these in excess!). If you see improper grammar in a wiki page, feel free to edit it! In addition, make sure you double-check (and maybe even triple-check) your edits after writing them to make sure you don't have any grammar bugs lurking on the page. Tables Tables should be styled as they appear when the add table feature is used in the visual editing mode of the classic editor. This does not apply to sorting tables, or excessively large tables (see Mounts). Parameters in source mode for this are: border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="article-table" style="width: 500px; Colors Use colors sparingly so as not to disrupt the global style. Colors are not used for any text as they can be confused with broken links or links to other pages. Links Try to add relevant internal links to articles, so that are avoided, and to help people browse the wiki. External links to GitHub issues and Trello cards can provide useful behind the scenes or historical information. When creating links on a page, make sure that you link to the current page for the topic in question, and that the target link in the source code (or edit link box) is appropriately capitalized. Because the wiki is a work in progress, pages are occasionally consolidated, removed, or renamed. For example, the Gold Points page has previously been named Gold Points (GP) and Gold Coins. To prevent issues when other sites have linked to the pages on the wiki that no longer exist, the admins leave redirect links to deleted pages. This means that when new internal links are created, the auto-fill suggestion box includes these old link names. When wiki users click these old links, they are redirected to the new page. The new page alerts the user to the old link redirect with a message below the page title, "Redirected from page name", as can be seen using the links in the above example. Link targets that are not capitalized in the source code also give this message. This issue does not affect functionality of the wiki, but using the correct link and preventing these messages improves the sense of professionalism that the wiki strives for. Headers Use headers liberally to break up articles, enable easier reading, and allow the automatic generation of table of contents. Try to avoid too many sub-headings as this can make the text harder rather than easier to read. Infoboxes Individual item pages should have a infobox with an image, the tooltip description, and buy/sell prices - instead of listing this info in paragraph form. Example code for the template is as follows. Titles When creating new pages, please do not use parentheses () in the title of the new page. This is due to a conflict with the formatting in the Tavern - wiki pages with parentheses in the title will glitch. Table of Contents (TOC) The table of contents (TOC) will automatically generate after the fourth main sub-heading. The TOC can be forced to appear with less than four sub-headings by including the following code in the source view of the editor at the start of the wiki document: __TOC__ To shift the TOC to the right of the page, enter the following code into the source view of the editor at the top of the wiki document: Avoiding Spoilers When looking for new information to add to the main namespace, stick to features that are already implemented, visible, and accessible to all players on HabitRPG. Though there is a tremendous amount of information about planned or upcoming features available on GitHub and the various Trello boards, this may contain spoilers that the staff wish to keep as surprises for players. This is particularly important for world events, particularly those with multiple event-based reveals like the battles with tavern bosses. It is, of course, okay to discuss quest lines in designated areas like the Camp. For spoilers of already implemented content, such as resolution text for boss or collection quests, you can use the templates for spoilers, Template:Spoiler start and Template:Spoiler end. The spoiler warning template, Template:Spoiler should be used on pages such as the Camp, where most or all content are spoilers. Images File types All images should be uploaded as PNG with transparent backgrounds with the highest resolution available. Note: Check before uploading new images. The image you want might already be uploaded. If not, you can find many of the original items/food/pets/mount images here. Captions Use the caption to explain what the picture shows, and to clarify why it is included in the page. Wide Captions When paired with smaller images, some captions may wrap undesirably as seen to the right. You can use the template as follows to render the image without undesired wrapping: Replacing v. Deleting Check out this thread for a good explanation of why it's generally better to replace rather than delete. Copyright Please include the origin of images, the author, and the copyright information when uploading images. Images from HabitRPG are licensed under the CC-by-NC-SA 3.0 license. To add the appropriate image licensing information, type on the image information page for HabitRPG artwork and screenshots. Adding Spacing and Preventing Awkward Overlaps If the image is creating issues with the layout, you can add the following code to create a clear space to fix it. Wiki Promotional Art Some pages have decorative promotional art, depicting Habiticans engaging in activities relevant to the material on the page. These images can add flavor and help break up large areas of text. If you find a page that could benefit from this type of art and have an idea for it, submit your idea to the appropriate card on the Pixel Art Trello. Once your idea is approved, it will be added to a list of scenes needed. Artisans will then be able to claim and create the scene. As wiki promotional art is decorative, it does not require captions. Videos Videos can be included from Youtube as well as Vimeo. These should improve the article significantly to be included. Categories Categories can be added to articles to group them according to a certain topic. Generally, these categories should add value to the article. Badges and Points Although categories may add some value, actual content should be rewarded. Therefore, points from badges after the 25th added category will be ignored when checking eligibility for contributor tiers. Edit Summaries When making edits, write a short summary of the changes that have been made in the 'Edit Summary' box before publishing. Depending on the edit, a few words may suffice, but major edits may need longer summaries or the inclusion of rationales. Providing these summaries allows other scribes to quickly get a sense of what has changed. It is also extremely helpful when filling out contributor tier applications, as these summaries are shown as part of the edit histories on user profiles in the 'Contributions' tab. In addition, it makes finding specific changes in a series of edits much easier. Renaming Pages On rare occasions, pages may need to be renamed. When pages are renamed, wikia will automatically create a redirect page that will take old links to the new site. However, links on the wiki will not be updated automatically. The wiki will still function, but users will be alerted to the fact that the link is old with a message below the page title, "Redirected from page name". To eliminate this message and maintain the sense of professionalism that the wiki strives for, you can use the special page to find those out of date links that renaming has created, and fix them. Simply type the old page title into the appropriate box, and they will be displayed. Deleting Only wiki admins can delete pages. If you think a page should be deleted, enter the classic editor and open the source tab. At the top of the page, add the following code with your reason for suggesting deletion: Stubs Category:Help Category:Advanced Category:Help:Technical Category:SuggestedChanges Category:WikiLiveChallenge Category:Content Category:Contributing